2025/12/04 by Diebold, S., Barnstedt, J., Conti, L. +9
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #GaN-based semiconductor devices and materials #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Photocathodes and Microchannel Plates #Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.04669
openalex publication_date 2025/12/04 · openalex created_date 2025/12/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Microchannel plates (MCPs) were the driving detector technology for ultraviolet (UV) astronomy over many years, and still today MCP-based detectors are the baseline for several planned UV instruments. The development of advanced MCP detectors is ongoing and pursues the major goals of maximizing sensitivity, resolution, and lifetime, while at the same time decreasing weight, volume, and power consumption. Development efforts for an MCP-based detector system for the UV are running at IAAT at the University of Tübingen. In this publication, we present our latest results towards coating aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) photocathodes directly on MCPs, to improve quantum detection efficiency in the far- and extreme-UV. Furthermore, we report on the implementation of a non-iterative centroiding algorithm for our coplanar cross-strip anode directly in an FPGA.